Information Flows of the Crimean and Ukrainian segments of the Internet: Content Analysis of Messages in social Networks Facebook and VKontakte

The article analyses the content of Internet messages of the Crimean and Ukrainian segment of the network about events in Ukraine and the Crimea for the period from 2017 to 2019. The authors’ research interest is due to the degree of conflict and the ambiguity of the informational assessment of events on the Crimean and Ukrainian topics that took place during this period, and, as a result, the formation of conflicting information flows of the Ukrainian and the Crimean segments of the Internet network. In the course of the study, we used a system-efficient approach that studies the Internet space as a product of the social environment; comparative analysis, which we used to compare the content of Internet messages of online communities of Ukraine and the Crimea; method of content analysis, which made possible assessment of the social and political mood of the audience of Ukrainian and the Crimean Internet users. The authors present the results of a cybermetric analysis of messages from online communities of social networks Facebook and VKontakte. The tone of information flows on UkrainianCrimean themes remains negative, which is a consequence of the complex and contradictory relations between Ukraine and Russia in the realm of politics. We revealed the interest in social, cultural and linguistic discourses in the information flows of the Ukrainian and the Crimean segments of VKontakte and Facebook networks, which may act as a factor in combining Internet audiences with different political positions. However, it requires a separate in-depth cybermetric analysis.

Ukraine, Crimea, online community, information flows, Facebook, VKontakte

1. Castells M. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. Transl. from Eng. Ekaterinburg: U-Faktoriya; 2004. 328 p. URL: http://www.library.fa.ru/files/Kastels.pdf (accessed on 17.08.2019). (In Russ.).

2. Castells M. End of Millennium, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Transl. from English. Moscow: GU VShE; 2000. 608 p. (In Russ.).

3. Toffler A. The Third Wave. Moscow: ACT; 2004. URL: http://www.read.virmk.ru/present_past_pdf/Toffler_Tretiya_volna.pdf (accessed on 17.08.2019). (In Russ.).

4. Bourdieu P. Sociologie de l’espace social. Transl. from French. Moscow: Institut of Experimental Sociology. St. Petersburg: Aleteya; 2007. 288 p. URL: http://socioline.ru/files/5/39/sociologiya_socialnogo_prostranstva.pdf (accessed on 17.08.2019). (In Russ.).

5. McLuhan H. M. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.. Transl. from Eng. Moscow; 2003. URL: https://gtmarket.ru/laboratory/basis/3528 (accessed on 17.08.2019). (In Russ.).

6. Bell D. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. Transl. from English. Moscow: Academia; 1999. 956 p. (In Russ.).

7. Baudrillard Jean. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. Moscow: Respublika; 2006. 269 p. (In Russ.).

8. Baudrillard Jean. For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. Moscow: Akademicheskiy Proekt; 2007. 335 p. (In Russ.).

9. Vaynshteyn G. Internet as a factor of social transformation. Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnyie otnosheniya. 2002;7:16–27. (In Russ.).

10. Giddens E. Sociology. Moscow: Editorial URSS; 1999. 704 p. (In Russ.).

11. Castells M. The Rise of the Network Society, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Moscow: Academia; 1999. (In Russ.).

12. Malkovskaya I. A. Sociological profile of information and communication society. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya. 2007:2:76–85. (In Russ.).

13. Martyanov D. S. Virtual communities in blogs: The practice of interaction with political actors. Izvestiya Rossiyskogo gos. ped. Un-ta im. A. I. Gertsena. 2007;13:67–75. (In Russ.).

14. Granovetter M. Problems of explanation in economic sociology. In N. Nohria and R. G. Eccles, eds. Networks and organisations: Structure, form, and action. Boston: Harvard Business school Press; 1992:25–56.

15. Nazarchuk A.V. Network society and its philosophical understanding. Voprosy filosofii. 2008;7:61–75. (In Russ.).

16. Pocheptsov G. G. Theory of communication. Moscow: Refl-Buk; K.: Vakler; 2001. 656 p. (In Russ.).

17. Toffler A. Future Shock. Transl. from English. Moscow: ACT; 2004. 557 p. (In Russ.).